Charlie James Gallery is pleased to present May the Ground Seethe, a solo exhibition of painting and sculpture by Los Angeles artist Shizu Saldamando. Saldamando’s intimate portraits distill figures from context, focusing on the body as the site of political struggle and communal joy. The title of the exhibition borrows a lyric from the song “MML” by Dorian Wood, whose portrait is a centerpiece of the show. Wood’s lyrics describe a collective movement built on love and rage, one that Saldamando takes up in this body of work. By spotlighting figures within her community who embody resistance to the prevailing currents of division and hate, Saldamando offers an alternative path of joyful, beautiful revolution

Saldamando works on raw wood panel and incorporates mixed media collage into her paintings. The compositions often take into account the natural grain of the wood supports, most dramatically here in the portrait of Narsiso Martinez, where shades of green paint delicately follow the woodgrain, evoking a rolling landscape. Martinez is framed by gnarled fruiting tees executed in paint and enhanced with washi paper collage, nodding to both the artist’s Japanese heritage and the subject’s history in farm labor and his artistic focus on the dignity and rights of the often undocumented people who make up the agricultural labor force. The composition is framed at the corners in delicate gold leaf, lending the picture an almost baroque sensibility.

For Saldamando, materials are extremely important as signifiers of history and carriers of memory. Her wood panels nod to the beautifully crafted woods of Japanese design, but also to the small wooden sculptures made by the artist’s grandfather while he was interned with other Japanese-Americans during the second World War. The panel rejects the often heroically masculine twentieth century art history of painting on canvas. Instead of beginning with a blank canvas, Saldamando works with wood as a readymade, inviting its natural individuality into the work. Pigment fuses with support to create soft, nuanced surfaces that lend themselves to the delicacies of skin. Saldamando also often works with washi paper, collaging it into painted compositions or building delicate Shizu Saldamando, Portrait of Dorian Wood, May the Ground Seethe, oil paint, washi paper, metal leaf, plastic decals on wood panel, 72 x 48 inches, 2025 sculptural elements from patterned paper – as with several small paper flower sculptures in the exhibition – incorporating a rich history of craft production into the work.

Each painting pays homage to its subject, honoring their artistic spirit through detail and embellishment. Dorian Wood shines in a hot pink dress over intricate black lace, their defiant energy feathering around their body in ethereal bits of collaged silver and pink. Kindred spirit and fellow fine and tattoo artist Tamara Santibañez confidently wears a brick wall on her sweatshirt, a nod to her deeply-researched work on the brick as a symbol of resistance and power. The punk rocker and community organizer Marin is captured at local festival, Dyke Day LA - relaxed, joyful, present. The largest work in the exhibition finds counterculture photographer Louis Jacinto and his partner Kene Rosa in their living room, surrounded by Louis’ artwork and cushioned in striking patterns, a nod to Kene’s history in the fashion industry.

Each portrait, at its most basic level, counteracts the erasure of marginalized people by simply asserting their existence. But more importantly, Saldamando captures the spirit of resilience and confidence that true resistance requires. Her cast of characters together provide a portrait of the artist’s community. Each portrait captures and celebrates the specific details that people use to construct their personhood. The portraits also serve as memorials, uplifting and honoring the work of creating a joyful and revolutionary existence amid interlocking systemic oppressions. Each work keenly sees its subject and celebrates their contributions to the community, a vital project in this moment of widespread erasure and uncertainty. Just as Wood sings in “MML,” this body of work seeks to be “a mouthpiece of love, rising rising rising” in collective power and rage. These seeds have the power to rise from the ground and grow into a movement of community and care that builds upon foundations laid by histories of queer resistance, labor organizing, and environmental justice. Saldamando transforms legacies of prejudice and exclusion into odes to resilience and flourishing.